Wausau room tax commission approves Festival of Arts and partial Artrageous funding; CVB asks for larger contract

At a City Hall meeting, the Wausau Room Tax Commission approved a full room-tax grant of $10,808 to the Wausau Festival of Arts and approved a $5,000 grant to Wausau Artrageous Weekend, and heard a request from the Convention and Visitors Bureau to extend its contract and raise its room-tax share.

The grants matter because room-tax revenues are the commission’s primary tool for paying for marketing that brings overnight visitors to Wausau, which in turn drives hotel room nights and local spending. Commissioners discussed how the two weekend arts events overlap in audience and marketing and debated whether grants should push organizers toward greater coordination.

Tim White, a representative of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the commission the CVB’s current contract runs through the end of the year and said the bureau would like the commission to consider a three-year contract and a raise from the existing 40% share to 45%. “We would like to up the contract to 3 years. We’d like you to consider, giving 45%, instead of 40,” White said, adding the CVB is using data to target short-distance regional markets and that visitation remains steady even as per-visitor spending shifts.

The commission then reviewed two grant applications that target the same weekend of events in the city. Chris Sleep, who identified himself as representing the Wausau Festival of Arts, described that downtown juried festival as a roughly 120-artist event that uses a mix of fundraising and regional marketing to attract visitors. “We do collaborate with Artrageous, to help shuttle, call it the patrons from Marathon Park to downtown and and and vice versa,” Sleep said. He told commissioners the festival limits paid advertising within a 90-mile radius and focuses paid buys on out-of-area markets to generate overnight stays.

Commissioners debated whether the Festival of Arts and Artrageous are sufficiently distinct in mission and audience to merit separate full grants. Several members said the Festival of Arts application demonstrated a more detailed, structured marketing plan and targeted out-of-area visitors; the commission voted to fund the Festival of Arts at the full requested amount of $10,808. The motion to fund the festival in full was made by Van Dyac and seconded by Lewitski; the vote carried unanimously.

By contrast, commissioners raised questions about the Wausau Artrageous Weekend application, including that its online presence appeared inconsistent (a listed URL was unavailable) and that the Artrageous submission relied on a Woodson Art Museum IRS determination letter as a pass-through for nonprofit status. Commissioners also noted no representative for Artrageous was present to answer questions. The Artrageous application requested $10,000, split in the budget as $5,000 for Facebook/Meta targeted ads and $5,000 for Google search ads. Tim Viniak moved and Lewitski seconded a motion to fund Artrageous at half the requested amount, $5,000; the motion carried.

Commissioners emphasized that the commission’s goal is to maximize out-of-area outreach that produces room nights. Alderman Rasmussen urged caution about forcing separate groups into smaller budgets if reduced funding simply makes all outreach smaller: “The one thing we don’t want to do is back the groups into a corner where both groups just do less,” Rasmussen said, adding that the commission wants to see the outer-radius outreach maintained or expanded.

Staff indicated they would place the CVB contract discussion on the agenda for a future meeting for deeper review. No formal change to the CVB contract or commission allocation was adopted at this meeting.

Votes at a glance: minutes of previous meetings (motion Rasmussen; second Bandyat) — approved; Wausau Festival of Arts — approved for $10,808 (motion Van Dyac; second Lewitski; outcome: approved unanimously); Wausau Artrageous Weekend — approved for $5,000 (motion Tim Viniak; second Lewitski; outcome: approved).

The commission adjourned after completing agenda items; staff and commissioners said they would follow up with applicants and return to the CVB contract question at an upcoming meeting.